Mercury's Flower

Preview #2

It sends her a message in her dreams. At first, she was dreaming probably one of the weirdest dreams she has had yet. But all of her dreams are weird. They mostly center on a flower, or heat. She thought it was strange at first, to be dreaming these weird things. Over the last 10 years though, she has learned how to deal with it.

The flower expanded and turned into a different amount of things. From a ball of fire, to an ice cube, finishing off at a hand. That is when the message hit her brain. It was an invention by the same people who invented the time schedules imprinted on every N.A citizen. Unless you were a deserter, it was law to follow this. The time schedules were tattooed onto your skin at birth in sharp green ink. It contained every last detail of your life. Age, creation date, your sector. That was only the left arm. The right arm held you schedule for eating, sleeping, school. All ways follow the schedules, Mercury. They said this so often to her.

At the end of your scheduled sleeping time, you will get a ringing or a tingling sensation in your brain so alarming, you wake up instantly. They are stupid for wanting a hold on everything. Mercury thought this so often without thinking the consequences if anyone had heard her thoughts. She caught herself numerous times thinking this and looked around her sharply to make sure no one heard her.

The tingling sensation had hit her dream and Mercury woke up.

Lately her head had been hurting whenever that sensation came to wake her up. Today was no exception.

She pulled her legs over the small bed she had been issued to sleep on. The gray and white sheets moved underneath her with the sudden movement. Every day she was confused and scared when she woke up surrounded by the clear glass but in less than 20 seconds, she remembered, This is my life, she thought to herself.

Mercury looked out the glass circle she was incased in to see only one person outside her cage. A blonde doctor, busy on one of the state-of-the-art computers Mercury only longed to touch. She has only been in the outside world once. That was 2 years ago. But she remembered every detail.

The air smelled different out there than in her glass cage. It was sweet and burned her lungs at first but then gave her a relief feeling. Something she had never felt before. The grass felt smooth and the wind blew fast through her red hair and kissed her skin. The other children ran around outside. She wondered what the outside world looked like now.

A beeping brought Mercury back to reality and the smile on her face from her daydream, at least that’s what she thought it was called, disappeared from her like a gust of wind. It was her time schedule. The oh-so persistent thing that ruled her life day in and day out.

DRINK GLASS OF WATER.

Mercury turned around to the panel on the only not glass wall after putting her arm down. Like on-cue as always, the glass of water appeared. Filled with 8 ounces of the pure liquid. Mercury always wondered why they made her drink 5 glasses of it every day. No exceptions. She did, and still does, think the water is drugged. Maybe I am their test subject. Mercury thought as her bare feet shuffled across the white carpet over to the panel. That’s why they make me do this. Why the study me. I am the only one. Her hands clutched the clear glass. She stared at the water with her eyes for a long period of time, actually looking for any trances of a drug.

Nope. The cold water touched her lips and throat as it entered her system. One day I will find out. One day.